Just want to say the 50D is well worth the continued magic lantern updates until perfection is attained. I recently acquired a Mosiac Engineering VAF-50D Optical Anti Aliasing filter and did some test footage with it. Needless to say I am very happy with the results and quality. You can see the footage here:

Will also be testing some low light/ night time footage as well, which from what Ive seen so far is pretty clean. The 50D is a better performer in low light for RAW capture than the 5D MKii and 7D! At only 25% less resolution than the 5D mkii, its surly worth the price to pick one up. I'm also shooting a short film this weekend and will post the link to that as well once its edited.

Just want to say the 50D is well worth the continued magic lantern updates until perfection is attained. I recently acquired a Mosiac Engineering VAF-50D Optical Anti Aliasing filter and did some test footage with it. Needless to say I am very happy with the results and quality.

Your footage shows it! It is even better than what I expected! 50D + VAF is killer combination. I cannot wait longer for my VAF filter - just ordered it few days ago ;o)

Here is what I got last weekend - shot mostly in full sensor without VAF:

Using Cineform RAW workflow to Adobe Premiere - that is pretty awesome too

Once I will have it in my hands I will make some test footage in the city (tried that couple of weeks ago but most of full sensor shots was unusable due to excessive aliasing and moiré). Now I only hope it will arrive soon...

I've got a prototype 50D VAF from Mosaic that doesn't hold up quite as well as Sync24FPS... It's a big deal having a picture perfect image. I'm honing in on my skills with RawTherapee to see if I can improve upon the last little bit of moire.

Anyway, the 50D seems to be perfectly aged for recording .RAW. It's not too clean, not too dirty, plenty of detail, and blows up to 4K 4.2.0 no problem.

... Downloading the latest ML and will post test results if necessary.

Anyway, the 50D seems to be perfectly aged for recording .RAW. It's not too clean, not too dirty, plenty of detail, and blows up to 4K 4.2.0 no problem.

Definitely agree and particularly the not too clean not too dirty part! Love that about the 50DQuestion about the 4.2.0 blowup to 4K. Why 4.2.0? Not 100% sure why. Is it pure resolution numbers, ie 1586 x 1080 1054 (or so) ?...or 1920 x 1080 or so in crop mode? Not quite sure.

The 4:2:0 relates to the amount of information contained in the shot. The 50D is a 14bit 444 image at a resolution near 1600x900. If you blow up the image you have a near 4K 4:2:0 native equivalent. More importantly, it's probably closer to a 10 bit 4:2:0 luminance/chrominance than an 8bit.

*** Most of the latest camcorder and DSLR gear will shot a native 8-bit 4K 4:2:0. It will have a sharp picture but will fall apart in the gradients. What that means for 50D shooters is that you are capturing footage with a softer, yet smoother transitioning image. An image that can be more cinematic in nature than the 8bit 4:2:0 4K that down samples to 10bit 4:4:4 Full-HD native equivalent. Apples to apples, the 50D is more than likely capturing the equivalent of a 12bit 4:4:4 Full-HD image/data equivalent even though it is a native 1600x900.

*** In a recent test, I was able to get a sharper image with a 50D / VAF combination than the Full-HD BM Pocket Cinema Camera. The Pocket Cinema was falling apart in the moire department and couldn't withstand the same up convert process as well as the 50D with the VAF. Apples to Apples, the Pocket Cinema was shooting a native 12bit 4:4:4 Full-HD image.

Obviously you can't change the sensor, but you can capture every last bit of information that the sensor has to offer. The freedom that this provides truly allows for a multigenerational capture acquisition... The type of camera that is now nearly 6 - 7 years old and still has a place at the frontline of prosumer equipment. In essence, it's a very powerful statement and a wise investment for image capture acquisition. Maybe the best?

I just wrapped shooting a short film with the 50D and noticed when trans coding that one of the important shots is corrupted. It plays back fine in the camera with the MLV player but when transferred to a computer, its really dark and has funky colors. Is there anyway to recover this file/ footage back to normal? Why would it play fine and look normal in the MLV player then when put on the computer be all messed up? Please help. Thanks!

Why would it play fine and look normal in the MLV player then when put on the computer be all messed up?

I suspect it's your card reader. Try and use a usb3 card reader if possible. I have a CF card reader on the front of my machine but it messes up stills and video from my Komputerbay cards which work fine from a card reader plugged into the USB3 port at the back. Other than that try transferring the file again or recovering it if it's been deleted but not overwritten.

I did try and delete the .IDX file and also am using a Lexar UDMA 7 card reader USB 3.0 When I try to convert the footage using the MLV2DNG converter I get this message in the DOS window before it starts:

Exception! Header not recognized: 'STYL'

Exception! Header not recognized: 'MARK'

The frames do render out but look really funky with odd colors and very dark. Are there any programs out there that can recover a corrupted DNG sequence back to normal do you know? Again it is playing as it should using the MLV player in the camera off the card. All my other footage is OK except this one file and its an important shot that we need. Any other help would be greatly appreciated...

All my other footage is OK except this one file and its an important shot that we need. Any other help would be greatly appreciated...

It might not be the card especially if it's reading the other files properly. It's just that I was reading this http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9747.msg93779#msg93779 which does mention your card reader. I've had files which have refused to copy 3 or 4 times but with persistence have copied properly. I don't know why. I also have some corrupt mov files I'd like to rescue but can't find a way of doing it.

SYNC24FPS if you are using a Mac I am writing a document here on how to repair .RAW files... Should be the same for .MLV. Anyway, this same information can be found by searching for "Damaged Header or Damaged Footer" in the forums...

Here is a process to fix corrupt files... Admittedly, it may seem like a lot of work for someone just wanting to shoot RAW, but we both know the image quality is well worth the additional exercise, right?

STEP 1:

This first step is for spanned files only. Spanned files must be merged into one file in order to be repaired. Here is how to merge them together on a Mac.

1. Place copies of all the spanned files on the desktop.

2. Open the program “Terminal.”

3. Type in “cd desktop.”

4. Use this code and replace "file.name" with the name of the corrupted spanned files... cat file.name file.name file.name > file.name.ALL.MLV

This is the process to join RAW or MLV files… Here is an exact copy of the files that I merged together... cat M07-2056.RAW M07-2056.R00 M07-2056.R01 M07-2056.R03 M07-2056.R04 M07-2056.R05 M07-2056.R06 M07-2056.R07 > M07-2056-ALL.RAW

STEP 2:

1. Shoot / Open a file in HexFiend that is similar in record length. Too short and you will cut off your shot prematurely. Too long and you will create empty/black DNG files. Be sure to have the same image resolution and frame rate too. *The black frames are easy to delete.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the HexFiend window or similar program and copy the letters and numbers starting with A5 A5 A5 all the way to the end of the file...

3. Leave the window open and then open the merged / damaged file in HexFiend.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the recording and locate the A5 A5 A5... If the A5 A5 A5 information is not located in your shot you will need to simply paste the information from your clipboard to the file. If the A5 A5 A5 is in the shot, simply highlight all the letters and number from A5 A5 A5 A5 and beyond and paste the new information on top.

5. Save the file to your desktop and/or to another location.

6. Now process / transcode the new MLV / RAW file using the converter of choice.

*** Note, the information from A5 A5 A5 up to the 52 41 57 appears to eliminate issues with pink frames. The information after the 52 41 47... relates to the number of frames in the shot. ***

I still experience crashes on latest nightly build. See my Reply #42 on: April 10, 2014, 08:24:32 AM. Today it happened two times (filmed near full 64GB card). Im now turning frame skipping ON (as it crashes just AFTER first frame skip) and fps from 23.976 to 24. Tommorow I will try it another day to see if changed settings make some difference. Any better ideas?

OK I did some research in the forums and because I am using Windows I downloaded HxD Hex editor. I also shot another "donor clip" with the same time as the damaged one. Can someone tell me the steps of using HxD Hex Editor to swap the header and footer on my damaged file with the donor file so I can save the clip? Again I am using windows 7. Thanks!

... There is also an option to leave the spanned files separate and use your Hex Editor to repair the file...

1. Open the last spanned clip in your donor shot with your Hex editor...

2. Copy the information from the "A5 A5 A5..." down to the very last line of information.

3. Open the last spanned clip in your damaged shot.

4. Paste the "A5 A5 A5..." from the donor shot onto the damaged shot in place of the existing "A5 A5 A5..." or at the end of the file if there is no "A5 A5 A5..." listed within the last 100 or so lines of your HexEdit window.

5. At that point, you have to "Save the File." This is actually writing your final spanned file with an ending header.

6. Place the newly written final spanned file into the batch of your other pre-spanned files.

Levi you rock! Thanks so much for the guidance and instructions! When I changed the header in the .MLV file and the footer in the last spanded file with the HEX file editor, the file was repaired and is now rendering as it was shot! At first though the MLV converter program was not working. It was only rendering out the first 1800 or so frames but when I switched to MLV2DNG script, it rendered all the frames perfectly! Thanks again Levi, you saved the day!